1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention are related to the field of electronic devices, and in particular, to thermal sensors.
2. Description of Related Art
A thermal sensor may be used, for example, to monitor a temperature of a microprocessor. When the measured temperature exceeds a predetermined temperature threshold, the thermal sensor may alert circuitry of the microprocessor so that corrective action (throttling back or shutting down the microprocessor, for example) may be taken to reduce the temperature. Without the corrective action, the microprocessor may overheat and catastrophic failure of the microprocessor may occur.
Typically, thermal sensors used with microprocessors include a diode and temperature measuring circuitry. The thermal sensor may be directly attached to a substrate (e.g., heat sink) of the microprocessor by way of a thermocouple or the diode may be embedded in the integrated circuits of the microprocessor. In operation, the voltage/current characteristics of the diode change, depending upon the temperature of the microprocessor, and the temperature measuring circuitry measures the voltage or current characteristics of the diode.